


Dancing

by hhertzof



Category: The Safe-Keepers Series - Sharon Shinn
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Lies, Truth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:16:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adele likes mischief and stirring up trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Themistoklis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Themistoklis/gifts).



Adele always suspected that she understood Eleda better than her sister understood her. But that was the nature of their respective gifts. Adele knew everyone's secrets - including Eleda's, and she wasn't above taking advantage of that, especially in some distracting folly.

Most of all, Adele liked teasing Eleda; liked watching her stiffen when Adele stirred up the pot. Her sister took everything so seriously. Things were either true or false, right or wrong. The secrets Adele kept weren't like that. There were always shades of gray, whys and why nots, and a surprising number of what ifs. Adele wished she could show her sister what she saw, the reasons why she kept this secret or that, but Adele's nature wasn't to tell what she knew.

But Adele wasn't suited to silences either, so she'd learned ways to distract people from what she wasn't saying, to put them at ease, and most importantly, to make them smile. Even when Eleda was patiently disapproving of her behavior, she would still smile at Adele's pranks and jokes. Nor did Eleda tell when Adele gave the wrong name, misleading people who sought out the Truth-Teller instead of the Safe-Keeper. Adele sometimes wondered why, but she didn't question Eleda, though that was one secret that escaped her. It was enough that Eleda let Adele have her fun. Anything that distracted Adele, just for a little while, from some of the darker secrets she kept, was a gift. Eleda might think Adele foolish sometimes, but foolishness was just what she need to keep the weight of those secrets from suffocating her.

As much as she appreciated Eleda's overdeveloped sense of honesty, there were so many things Eleda missed because she was talking and not listening, Adele loved her secrets and especially loved knowing things that no one else knew. Most of the time. There were some secrets she would rather not have carried, as she suspected there were some truths Eleda would rather not have told, but that was the cost of their gifts, and neither of them thought the price too high. Still, there were times when she preferred to pretend to be her sister, and that the burden she carried wasn't hers.

When the Dancing Master and his apprentice came to the inn, Adele figured out who they were almost at once. She told no one. When did she ever speak out of season? This was not a secret that would harm anyone and as always she savored knowing something no one else suspected.

Predictably, Roelynn was smitten by the young apprentice and insisted on dancing lessons. Of course her father wouldn't allow her to go without Micah and of course she would insist that Eleda and Adele joined them, so she wouldn't have to dance with her brother.

Eleda was reluctant at first, but easily convinced. Adele knew her sister wouldn't be able to resist matchmaking. Her sister's cynicism had always hidden a romantic. As for Adele, she never could resist stirring things up. This promised to be better than a Midsummer farce and there was no harm in keeping silent about what she knew. Not here, not now. It amused Adele to let her sister take charge of the dancing lessons, to watch Eleda's frustration as the mismatching of partners and the shuffling that suited all six of the dancers. It was, she thought, almost like a waltz. It wasn't until much later that Adele realized that Eleda had noticed Adele's mischief-making, but hadn't seen the need to protest. Eleda hadn't figured out the real reason, though.

Had Adele given in too easily and danced with Micah from the start, Eleda would never have trusted Gregory. Not after what had happened with that player, whose name Adele wouldn't speak, even to herself. Not when Gregory was clearly the sort who drifted from place to place trying whatever took his fancy and would be moving on again soon. Eleda liked things to be cut and dried and Gregory was elusive.

So Adele made a game of it, knowing that Roelynn would soon arrange things to her tastes, snagging  
Alexander for herself. Whether or not Roelynn saw through Adele's plan didn't matter. Roelynn was well accustomed to getting her own way and romantic enough to see that Micah ended up in Adele's arms. This, rather neatly, left Gregory and Eleda to partner each other. In an added bonus, throwing a little difficulty in Roelynn's path would insure that she didn't tire of Alexander too soon, as she always did when the chase was too easy. A little mild flirtation on Adele's part, filled that need quite nicely, though Adele was always aware that Alexander's heart already belonged to Roelynn.

This was what Adele excelled at - pushing all the pieces into place and trusting them to finish the pattern. Admittedly, she got as much amusement from the times it failed as the times it succeeded, but it was much more pleasant to succeed. It worked, just as she expected. Eleda wasn't even particularly angry when she'd found herself in love with Gregory - Gregory had charmed his way deep enough into her heart that nothing else mattered. Meanwhile, Roelynn did precisely what her father had always wanted, in a way that suited her own temperament. It was Roelynn's idea to marry in secret forgoing the parties and the fuss for the thrill of elopement,just as it had suited Adele to help her. Adele had never forgiven Roelynn's father for his part in Micah's disappearance and in the end she'd been able to take her revenge quite neatly. There were times when seeing a secret exposed was more satisfying than carrying it tucked safe inside her heart.

And as for Adele, she also had her Micah with no one to stand in their way. She'd make him a good wife, as Roelynn would make a good Queen in time, and Eleda and Gregory would support and help each other. Micah also needed someone to stir him up sometimes, and now that Adele had handed Eleda over to Gregory, who would see that her sister never grew too dull or set in her ways, she needed a new outlet for her mischief making, and Micah would suit her just fine.


End file.
